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Did Obama strike right compromise on birth control insurance?

Some Catholics say the Obama administration’s compromise on a rule requiring employers to provide prescription birth control at no out of pocket costs is not enough.

The administration had initially issued a rule requiring all employers — with an exemption for churches, but not religious universities and hospitals — to offer health insurance plans that cover birth control at no cost to women.

After fierce protests from the Church, the president proposed allowing religious employers to leave birth control out of their plans, but requires insurers to directly offer free coverage for birth control to those employees.

The compromise hasn’t satisfied Catholic bishops.

Before flying to Rome Saturday night for his elevation to cardinal, Archbisho Timothy Dolan wrote a letter to fellow bishops condemning “the violation of our freedom of religion that has not been addressed” by the new plan.

“No government has the right to intrude into the affairs of the Church, much less coerce the Church faithful individuals to engage in or cooperate in any way with immoral practices,” wrote Dolan, who is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, said she was “very pleased” that “the framework developed has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed.”

Parishioners were split. Studies have shown the vast majority of Catholics use birth control despite church teachings, but some said mandating coverage goes too far.